Posting a Document

Unposted vs Posted Documents

A company’s documents are presented as editable document pages that show which users can enter, edit, and process the details of a transaction. These pages always consist of a header (different FastTabs) and lines (Lines FastTab).

As soon as a document is complete, and the data must be processed into the other application areas, the document is posted. The unposted document disappears, and a posted document is created. The posted document can be consulted, but it is not editable.

For example, the sales invoice is a document that contains both billing information for the customer (header) and the details of sold items (lines). As long as this document is not posted, no general ledger entries are created, and the customer balance or the item’s stock is not adjusted. When you post the document, the sales invoice disappears and a posted sales invoice is created.

Journals

The use of documents is one way to process data in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV database. However, you can also use journals, which is a wide concept within Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Journals are not only limited to the accounting journals (for example, general journals, sales journals, and purchase journals).

Each application area has journals with which users can process transactions in their own domain. For example, the general journal is used to process accounting transactions that always result in the creation of general ledger entries. These transactions can also create other entries, for example, customer ledger entries and vendor ledger entries. The item journal is another example in which the posting results in item ledger entries, value ledger entries, and – directly or indirectly – general ledger entries.

Postings

Each posting, either from documents or from journals, creates ledger entries. New records are created in one or more posting tables. Some examples of posting tables are general ledger entries, customer ledger entries, vendor ledger entries, and item ledger entries.

You can view posted ledger entries in many ways, for example, through the Navigate tab on the ribbon, through Flow fields on a record, or through links in a FastTab.

For example, on the Customer Card, you can view the history of all customer transactions by clicking Ledger Entries on the Navigate tab in the ribbon. When a sales invoice is posted, the outstanding balance of the customer is adjusted. Through the Balance (LCY) field, either on the General FastTab of the Customer Card or on the Customer Statistics – Bill-to Customer Fact Box, you receive a filtered view of the customer ledger entries. This shows only the open entries that make up the balance.